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August 26, 2014

Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant

I haven't abandoned you, Real Writers, I've been working on my own novel, one of many rounds of editing, and it's been crunch time for me. I promised myself I would finish it by end of August. There was also a healthy dose of Game of Thrones binge-watching. I admit it. I came late to that party.

I post on my Facebook page nearly every day, however, so "like" via the badge to the right for news, tips, and my general rants about bad writing and how you can make sure it doesn't happen to you!

Below is my latest article on creative nonfiction for JMWW.

Tell All the Truth But Tell It Slant

by Christine Stewart

It's time to give some love to the creative nonfiction writers, who have just as many cool tools to use as fiction writers (including the tools fiction writers use).

Per the quote from an Emily Dickinson poem that's my title for this piece, let's get one thing straight: there is no such thing as a true story. Even newspaper articles have a slant and a shape to the article. Even if you're telling a story about something that actually happened, you're telling a story. It's your version of events shaped and paced in a certain way. You’re telling it slant.

Facts are the only truth, but how one interprets them and which ones you share or leave out is the realm of story.

What is creative nonfiction? It's the reporter-like communication of information shaped like fiction using literary technique and style.

What falls under this heading: biography, autobiography, memoir, personal essay, travel essay, food essays, diary writing, history, which is the relaying of history in the form of a novel for example, from the point of view of the person or people involved. The same is true for literary journalism—the story is told as a story, with setting of scene, a narrator (character), the use of conflicts and tension, etc.

Check out some cool techniques (that you c an also use as a fiction writer); read more here.